:National Club Champs!

I just have to share! Nate has coached the University of Colorado’s club swim team for the past two years. Nationals – the culmination of the American Swimming Association – University season – were held last weekend in North Carolina. The association is comprised of student-run swim clubs from colleges and universities across the country, founded in response to the elimination of collegiate varsity swim teams.

From the website: The 4th Annual American Swimming Association University League Nationals Championships proved to be a powerful display of the growth and rising level of competition of collegiate club swimming this weekend, where only 14 of 50 ASA U. COLLEGIATE CLUB SWIMMING RECORDS were able to withstand the onslaught of record-breaking swims at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Koury Natatorium.  

Colorado dominated the meet, winning the men’s, women’s, and overall team competitions and sweeping all four relay events in record time.  Rounding out the top three in the team competitions were UNC-Chapel Hill and Penn State with second and third place respective finishes in all three divisions. Eighteen clubs and 310 swimmers participated in all, making this year’s ASA U Nationals the largest and most competitive ever.

Nate was really, really proud of his team and swimmers. He told me they worked hard in practice and the many, many personal bests are evidence of their hard work. Here’s the team…that’s Nate in the white dress shirt and tie on the left.

Here’s what The Campus Press had to say… including some quotes from Nate.

Here’s a youtube video about the team, including a brief interview with Nate.

:Sick of winter

Remember a week ago Sunday when I posted the gentle snowfall that morning was beckening me to slow down? It snowed at least twice yesterday and again in the night. Do you think if I listen to stillness of the snowfalls, if I pay them heed, it will quit snowing??!! This is the time of year that is the most difficult for me. It seems like spring has sprung everywhere else.

Certainly there are signs of spring. I hear birds in the morning. And the mud. Can’t forget the mud. Much of the snow melts within hours (this is not to say I can see the ground!!!), leaving sticky, mucky mud. Okay. Okay. I’ll stop whining. After all, in a few months when most of the rest of you are sweltering, up here fresh mountain breezes will flutter beneath bright blue skies. That’s when I’ll slow down! That’s when I’ll sit on the deck for entire afternoons!

This past weekend was another whirlwind. Rose Day. Tax Day. Sun Day. Over the past two weekends I’ve also spent time completing the requirements for recertification of my Red Card, the credential required for getting ‘behind-the-scene’ in case of evacuation for forest fires. Recert requires an eight-hour refresher in Wildland Fire Training and the infamous Pack Test. We were fortunate enough to be home when evacuation was required for the Black Mountain Fire in 2002. Had we not, my dogs would have been unattended for several days, not to mention possibly being the victims of the forest fire. Citizens cannot get beyond the barriers set up once evacuation is in place. I’m now part a group that formed that summer – Animal Evac Volunteers. My status on the Red Card is THSP – which means Technical Specialist.

Here I am controlling a ferocious dog in a mock-evac…

And here I am in full Wildland gear…